• Thanks for visiting The Penturners Forum today.

    There are many features and resources that currently you are unable to see or access, either because you're not yet registered, or if you're already registered, because you're not logged in.

    To gain full access to the forum, please log in or register now. Registration is completely free, it only takes a few seconds, and you can join our well established community of like-minded pen makers.

Kitless bulbfiller - the goal

Jimjam66

Chief Battonager
Registered
Joined
Jan 27, 2013
Posts
3,775
Location
Basingstoke, Hampshire
I thought I would do this project in a diary format, sharing the build process as I go. Sorry if it bores you to tears.

I want to build a pen with the following features:

1. Completely kitless. Apart from the nib and feed, which will be a 6mm Jowo unit from PeteB, every component must be handmade by me.

2. It must be wood. Acrylic ain't my bag. Any accessories will be brass.

3. It must be strong enough to be a saleable unit.

4. And, just because I'm a masochist, it's going to be a bulbfiller. That means the barrel must be a sealed watertight unit, and there has be a blind cap on the end of the barrel to allow access to the ink sac.

I'll post my preliminary sketches later today, and then we can get on with the build! Comments and advice welcome at any stage.
 

clumsysod

GOBBY GIT
Graduate Member
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Posts
687
Location
Grantham
Comments and advice welcome at any stage.
You mad fool don't do it:face:
(Oh little pictures are are back cheers Jim.)
What a hell of a task. I wish you luck and will watch with interest. (waiting to pounce with a bucket full of ridicule):wink::wink:
 

Jimjam66

Chief Battonager
Registered
Joined
Jan 27, 2013
Posts
3,775
Location
Basingstoke, Hampshire
Kitless bulbfiller - the sketches

Armed with the knowledge that George is waiting to heap ridicule on me, lets move on.

Below the sketches. You will notice that my drawing skills are only slightly better than my pen turning skills ... :winking:

image.jpg

image.jpg

My current thinking is that wood won't be strong enough without brass tubing, so I will include tubing (made by drilling out brass bar) with some of the brass connectors. By my count I need to make up five brass components (section, barrel, cap, rear of barrel, blind cap). The brass will carry the threading - I know that some pen turners thread the wood directly, but I'm not that brave!

Internal diameters are restricted by the drills I own. I don't have a boring bar, and even if I did the diameters are too small to use one. Since I have 0.5mm increment drill bit set, that's what I have to plan for. For the same reason all threading will be single-start as that's all I've got.
 

Woody

Registered
Joined
Jul 12, 2013
Posts
12,812
Location
at home
First Name
no
If George ridicules it to much lets see him do one LOL come to that why dont you both do one show them and we will all judge them to see who done the best pen all those in favor say EYE :banana::banana::banana:
 

clumsysod

GOBBY GIT
Graduate Member
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Posts
687
Location
Grantham
Eye, but you'll have to wait a while.
David only a suggestion and tell me to shut my Gob but would it be an idea that is already in your head.
Leave the brass tubes with a little more meat on the bone so you can put the threads directly into them as opposed to making inserts.
I mean come on man how the hell are we supposed to decipher those drawings? A man with your cad skills should put us all to shame.
Only joshing with you mate, the pictures saved to my screen and resized fine.
I thought I would look forward to what you are going to do about the sac but the more I think the easier it becomes, there are many materials that could be used.
 

Jimjam66

Chief Battonager
Registered
Joined
Jan 27, 2013
Posts
3,775
Location
Basingstoke, Hampshire
Eye, but you'll have to wait a while.
David only a suggestion and tell me to shut my Gob but would it be an idea that is already in your head.
Leave the brass tubes with a little more meat on the bone so you can put the threads directly into them as opposed to making inserts.

George, that's one thing I might try - obviously I can't make the barrel and rear of barrel brass bits as one with a tube in between, because then I couldn't get the wood blank on! But maybe the rear of barrel bit will have the tube attached, so to speak. Ditto for the cap thread and the larger tube in the cap. The one thing I can't figure out then is - how the heck do I turn the bits? I will have to make up mandrel a for this anyway, but without single-sized tubes to slide into how will I hold them? Any brilliant ideas?
 

Jim

Grand Master
Joined
Oct 19, 2011
Posts
15,617
Looking forward to the end result David, please hurry ... :rant:


On a side note, when you said
I'll post my preliminary sketches later today
why was i expecting something along these lines .. :nooidea:

formulas.jpg
 

Jimjam66

Chief Battonager
Registered
Joined
Jan 27, 2013
Posts
3,775
Location
Basingstoke, Hampshire
I made some slow progress on this today. Quite a lot of thinking has been going on (Yes, my head hurts. Yes, there's steam coming out of my ears.) and I believe that I am going to try tubeless. The reason for this will become apparent later in the build (if I ever get there!) but it also simplifies the brass fittings quite a bit.

I turned the barrel fitting (left in the pic below - most complex as it has both male and female threads) and the cap fitting (right in pic below) today. The cap fitiing came apart at the seams because I tried to do too much with a very short piece of brass. Moral of the story - prototyping can be expensive! Use the right length of rod for the job first time or else you WILL do the second time! :whistling:

photo.JPG

I have the longer piece all squared and ready to turn on the lathe, but I'm knackered so going in to watch a movie with the good lady ...

:oldman:
 

Jim

Grand Master
Joined
Oct 19, 2011
Posts
15,617
Don’t be to forlorn David, all good things come to those who turn pens … :wink:
 

Jimjam66

Chief Battonager
Registered
Joined
Jan 27, 2013
Posts
3,775
Location
Basingstoke, Hampshire
Wel, I just fell at the next hurdle, :sob:. It appears that when you're tapping a 0.75 thread, you need to drill a hole 0.75 smaller than the thread diameter. Since I'm using 10mm and 12mm threading, that means I need 9.25 and 11.25 drill bits. Using 9.5 and 11.5 creates a wobbly fit between male and female components - clearly not good enough! So fleabay to the rescue, two jobbers drillbits on their way, and when they arrive I have to remake every component I've already made!

:sob::sob::sob:

Remind me why I started this project again?
 

bellringer

The Young one
Registered
Joined
Feb 27, 2013
Posts
5,187
Location
Surrey
First Name
Alex
Wel, I just fell at the next hurdle, :sob:. It appears that when you're tapping a 0.75 thread, you need to drill a hole 0.75 smaller than the thread diameter. Since I'm using 10mm and 12mm threading, that means I need 9.25 and 11.25 drill bits. Using 9.5 and 11.5 creates a wobbly fit between male and female components - clearly not good enough! So fleabay to the rescue, two jobbers drillbits on their way, and when they arrive I have to remake every component I've already made!

:sob::sob::sob:

Remind me why I started this project again?

you started because you have now got a metal lathe addiction now the only treatment is to get rid of you metal lathe :devil:
 

Grump

Grand Master
Joined
Aug 17, 2013
Posts
10,504
Location
Stevenage
First Name
Brian
David I have all the taps, dies and drill bits from when I used to make electronic cigarettes.
I am not sure off hand what the sizes are but they are smallish.
Will look them out at the weekend maybe we should head bash together.
 
Warning! This thread has not had any replies for over a year. You are welcome to post a reply here, but it might be better to start a new thread (and maybe include a link to this one if you need to).
Top